Blue Magic on Mushroom Island

"NICARAGUA, 1994-ADRIANAS romantic evening with MATT, the handsome gringo she met at a US Embassy soiree, is ruined by a bizarre assassination. Shes a well-known American journalist. The victims blood is on her hands and clothes, and shes been in Nicaragua long enough to know witnesses to murder do not always live to tell their story. The alarm goes out, and agents of the dreaded Sandinista State Security confront her, interrogate her, confiscate her passport, and order her to remain in Nicaragua during the investigation. She cannot. Even if the killers dont get her, the investigation will uncover her darkest secret-the wartime murder of her family and her involuntary conscription into the Sandinista army at age 15. She had deserted, and wartime desertion is a capital crime. To escape, she accepts an assignment to cover a story about "magic" mushrooms on a remote island on Lake Nicaragua. Adriana doesnt care about mushrooms or their BLUE MAGIC derivative. She plans to get to the island with Matt and escape by boat-never mind that a hurricane is in the Caribbean. Mushroom Island is a creepy place inhabited by escaped criminals and runaways from mental institutions. They dye themselves blue. They are hostile. Worse, a notorious tomb looter is also searching for the mushrooms. He murders a separate team of mushroom hunters, has a bloody confrontation with the blue inhabitants, and captures YARITZA, the only person who knows the location of the mushroom cave and the formula for Blue Magic. Adriana and Matt get caught up in the intrigue. Then the hurricane strikes. They shelter in an ancient room beneath pre-Columbian ruins. The next day they deviate from their escape plan and find the mushroom cave, save Yaritza, and help her dispatch the tomb looter with a spear. Yaritza mysteriously disappears, but not before rewarding Adriana with a bag of Blue Magic. Matt and Adriana flee by boat and make their way to Colombia. From there, they fly to Orlando, resolve their love conflicts, and settle in St. Augustine, Florida"--